Condor series to prey on audience assumptions, according to CIA thriller's showrunner

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AT&T Audience Network’s Three Days of the Condor riff Condor has a 10-episode season to develop an almighty fear of a corrupt government. Speaking at a TCA 2018 panel, showrunners Todd Katzburg and Jason Smilovic think that might be as timely now as it was in 1975, when the Robert Redford film came out.

Citing a plague of distrust, Smilovic explained that the series “was not a whodunit, but whydunit.” “We have a show essentially without villains, because they are operating from their own true necessity. I would say by Episode 6 you will know every member of our plotting cabal,” Smilovic said.

The show loosely mimics the film’s plot, with a CIA researcher discovering the murdered bodies of his co-workers, then becoming involved in a tangled conspiracy. Max Irons plays the Redford role, though they’re such large shoes to fill he “almost banned Robert Redford’s name for fear of bursting into tears.”

Joining Irons, William Hurt, Mira Sorvino, and Bob Balaban in Condor is Brendan Fraser, whose character Nathan is, in Fraser’s words, “a nasty piece of work.” Fraser cited a different approach from the majority of his film roles — one focused on a developing arc. “My task was not to do a mustache-twisting character,” he said of the villain. This villain is driven by bigotry, “a fanatic who believes the government needs to wage war on Islam,” which is something addressed by Katzburg. He says that aspect of the show was designed to “lure the audience in by preying on their assumptions and show they are wrong. We are all susceptible to zealotry.”